Edgar’s spirit changed after witnessing the fight. While he was still determined to defend Tanuki should anyone try to trick or manipulate him, he was in no state to be of help, as he could barely think straight.

He excused himself to the restroom and left the spectator area through a long hall stretching endlessly. Some sparse torches illuminated the way forward through indistinguishable turns and stairs.

The image of the boy’s corpse flashed into his mind from time to time, and with each turn, he felt his body give in more to sickness. He could barely stand as nausea threw him around like a ship on the stormy sea. A few times he stopped, leaning against the wall to recollect himself before continuing his battle forward.

The torchlight ahead flickered as his eyelids grew heavy. Suddenly, his vision blurred more than before, and he felt the world slip beneath his feet.

“Help me,” he whispered hastily before succumbing to the machinations of gravity.

An arm took him just in time to pull him back from the fall. Edgar found his chin resting on a mysterious figure’s shoulder. He was surprised to see a soul in these godless corridors, and after regaining some of his power, he tried to thank the man. That never came to fruition, because as soon as he opened his mouth, he felt his stomach banish his once dinner back to his mouth.

“Excuse me,” he pushed himself away from the stranger and aimed his head at the ground. In his heaving, saliva dropped down his tongue, but no food remains remained after he had thrown up already once before.

Sensing the futility of his effort, Edgar calmed his digestive tract and wiped his mouth.

“Allow me assistance,” an arm emerged from the dark, a white piece of cloth resting on his ragged glove.

Edgar took the tissue and thanked him. Cleaning his mouth, he was surprised by the delicate soft material. Having realised it must have been expensive, he quickly offered it back, but the voice refused.

“A most amiable man! But the gift must not be returned. After all, to assist a compatriot’s right-hand man is a great pleasure of mine.”

Edgar could not see the source of the voice in the dark. He could however see a silhouette of what would have been his head, bearing a tall headwear, dancing with quavers in the torchlight. It was unnatural how his neck twisted and jerked, almost as if there was another being beneath his skin, trying to break free by trashing around. He found this attribute of the man awful, feeling discomfort mixed with dread as he observed what small of him was revealed.

The figure noticed the emotions in his eyes and stood up, covering the only light source in the hall. Though he had already exercised kindness, Edgar’s heart jumped at that moment, as he knew that if the man wanted to, he could finish him with the ease of cutting wheat.

But the man simply bowed his head and apologised before continuing on the road.

“Apologies for my rude immediacy! Amongst the spectators sits a young man who had entered a partnership with me. This’s ought to be our first business session, and I must admit, it brings great excitement to my heart.”

“Who are you?” Edgar asked before the man could get too far.

“All good things come to those who wait! I should present myself with a proper introduction.”

They spoke no more. As the man had disappeared into the dark, Edgar climbed to his feet. Though his stomach felt wobbly all the same, he felt a sense of urgency to return to Tanuki.

“I must defend him,” he repeated, scurrying back to the arena.

Soup thought she could bash through the gate and enter the arena ahead of time. Instead, she nearly had a concussion as she ran headfirst into an unmoving door. Kukusi noticed the reverberance of her skull against the wood from the opposite end of the arena. He stopped and stared seemingly nowhere, then nodded to himself.

“It must be them,” he shrugged unenthusiastically, “I guess it’s better to introduce fodder before giving space for the big shot.”

With no more than a huff and puff, the ball-shaped pig appeared at the center point of the fighting pit from a cloud of purple sparkle and raised his voice to gather the attention of spectators and stars.

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“Ladies and Gentlemen! Break time’s over! We return for round two of tonight’s tournament!”

Tanuki barely listened to the words Kukusi said. After the first round, he lost all enthusiasm for the tourney. He slumped into his throne like a thoroughly wet mop and retreated behind a thousand-yard stare.

The stars of the gods above did not lose from their brightness. Kukusi’s words captivated them like glistening gemstones atop golden bells.

“Our first challengers come from a tribe of green-skinned critters! Some call them devils, others goblins, but we can all agree that these fine ladies are as mischievous as they are beautiful! Give it up for…”

Kukusi furrowed his brows. There was something wrong, though not wrong enough not to continue after clearing his throat.

“Give it up for the one and only Soup, Daughter of the Blue Minotaur!”

The gate opened just as the little gobbo wiped the blood off her nose. She entered with a great battle-roar, raising fists into the sky while running beside Kukusi.

Her appearance grabbed Tanuki’s attention and he jumped up in his seat, much to Six’s surprise.

“My Liege?” he asked worryingly, “Something wrong?”

Tanuki’s eyes stared wide at the creature. She reached no taller than his hips, yet she bore defined muscles that showed great strength in every conscious movement. Blue paint of tribalistic patterns adorned her arms, much of her skin deep blue with white lines setting barriers between that and her natural colour, white dots adorning the way up her shoulder to a drawn mask of blue coating her skin above a white line running horizontally through the tip of her nose, straight from ear to ear. Though much of their long, pointy ends could not be seen below the incredible headdress that was almost half her entire size. The head of a blue great minotaur sat heavy on her head, its dead eyes still shining red with wrath and power. Some of his fur remained attached to the back of his neck, running behind the goblin as she dragged it along the dust like a queenly mantle.

From the back, she would be unrecognisable as a goblin, given the fur made it appear as though the vengeful ghost of a bull crawled quickly through the dust. It was from the front that Tanuki saw something that disturbed him, leaving such a sour taste in his mouth that immediately he knew,

“I want her to lose. I need her to lose.”

He spoke with a frown that was unfamiliar to Six. He inquired why he would be so swift to determine her as the worse of two evils, one of which still remained to be shown, but Tanuki never answered. He did not hear him from the screaming disturbance that cursed his already shaken thoughts.

Soup bore a cocky grin and when she bounced next to Kukusi, she declared her intentions while she already pounced for the attack.

“What a cute little piggy you are! Let me pet you!”

Just as she would have hugged the soul out of Kukusi, he suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind the confused goblin. Once more, she tried to engulf him with her arms, but Kukusi appeared behind her and bumped her on the head with his staff.

“Behave, Miss Soup!”

“Ouch! You’re mean,” Soup rubbed the pain away from her forehead. As she looked around, Tanuki and Six came to her attention and she raised a finger to point at Six. “Oy! Listen up, maggot! You heard my name, they call me Soup! But to you, I am Death! I will win this challenge and take your land, your items, even your animals! And you know what’s best? I’ll have you watch as a I slay every man of yours before beating you to death with your own weapon!”

The goblin laughed heartily like a true asshole. She seemed genuine in her joy, which only further confused Six.

“Why green thing threaten me?”

Tanuki shrugged, then returned his hateful gaze towards Soup. “Does she think you’re the owner of a Gaia Core? I guess her idiocy is just as big as her…”

He did not finish. Instead, Kukusi bumped Soup on the head again and corrected her mistake.

“If you’re looking to chat up the golden trophy of this tourney, you better talk to the right one.”

“Eh?” Soup moved her gaze and met frown to frown with Tanuki’s. Her eyes grew for a second as she looked the boy up and down.

She closed her mouth just in time to catch it, but as it tried to escape again and again, she gave up on restraining the laugh. She burst out into such laughter that she fell on her back, and she had to hug her belly so it would not explode from the uncontrollable haw-haw.

Tanuki boiled with rage. Had he felt any more of it, he would have been stupid enough to try getting into the ring to teach a lesson to the gobbo, something he could not, given how the arena worked. He stood firm with venomous rage trying to poison the green creature through his gaze.

Soup managed to speak a few words between the laughs.

“You can’t be serious! That toothpick-wannabe thing is the owner of a realm? He is meant to be a god? Of what? Fragility? Impotence? Look at it, he’s so goofy! That thing looks like the child of a twig and a fart!”

The more she spoke, the more she spiralled back into laughter and Tanuki further into the depths of hate.

The way it looked, spoke, behaved… he had never felt so much contempt for a creature since the Kiss of Death, but even then, he wondered whether the bride or the indecent savage incited more bloodlust in his heart.

Kukusi let Soup enjoy herself, mainly because he saw that the stars enjoyed the show she put on. He felt a great talent in the young adult, she knew how to mock one while earning laughs from others.

He shook his head with a silent smile. It was not the first time he would see a bright star’s light be snuffed out before they could grow to their full potential.

“I’m sorry gal, but you cannot win this match. I truly wish you could, but the truth is, your opponent is much stronger than you. Even with Schwarz, I feared she might not be enough to kill him, and compared to her, you are two-storeys below. Your chances to kill that man are less than one in a hundred. But I wonder, I truly do, could I be so lucky to live in a reality where you might best him…”